Is there any truth in what Ricketts has to say?

The RosenBlog

It has gotten to the point where you hope that Tom Ricketts is just getting some bad advice in delivering his message.

Because after Ricketts’ comments Wednesday evening about his team that is competing to own the worst record in baseball and about the people who made all of that ignominy possible, we’re back to wondering whether the Cubs’ Fanboy Owner is lying or stupid.

Or playing fans for stupid.

Again.

Maybe Ricketts was the type of fan who got suckered, so he figured he could sucker the rest of them that way, too.

That’s one way to explain it when the Fanboy Owner says he has “100 percent confidence’’ in the general manager who put together this mess and that Jim Hendry is “working very hard to do everything he can to get this season back to where we want it to be.’’

Working hard doesn’t necessarily mean working smart. Duh. This season and last season provide some of the biggest duhs you could want, which makes it utterly ridiculous to express “100 percent confidence’’ in someone largely responsible for this joke. I could recite other dumb things the Fanboy Owner has said, but that would do little except prompt fans to volunteer to be waterboarded.

More interestingly, there is evidence that the Fanboy Owner is lying, or as he might say at the outgoing Hendry news conference in a couple months, he was not tipping his hand.

But he did in a way Wednesday. Get a load of the Fanboy Owner when asked a second time if he had complete confidence in Hendry:

“I'm pretty happy, I'm comfortable with Jim and I'm confident in his ability to keep us looking forward.’’

Did you catch that? At first, he was “happy.’’ Then, oops, just “comfortable.’’ The Fanboy Owner started one way, then apparently realized that not even the lobotomized Cubs fan that he still sounds like would buy such a stupid comment.

That kind of comment reveals that support for Hendry perhaps isn’t as staunch as the Fanboy Owner says, which prompts questions about change.

“I’ve never bought into the (idea),’’ Ricketts said, “that I should have a baseball guy to watch my baseball guys and his baseball guys and blah, blah, blah, lame joke, lame joke, lame joke.’’

Quick, someone explain to the Fanboy Owner that you don’t get a baseball guy to WATCH a baseball guy. You get a baseball guy to RUN your baseball organization instead of the general manager who has put together one of the worst teams in the majors and the team president who brought in the priest to break the “curse.’’

At least act like you have a clue. At least act like you’re awake. At least act like you’re in charge.

It’s one thing to come off sounding like a North Shore fop. It’s another to disenfranchise your fan base. Ricketts appears to be Michael McCaskey heading toward Bill Wirtz.

After Wednesday’s remarks and after his comment a week earlier that there’s nothing wrong with the Cubs except “a lot of injuries,’’ several things are painfully clear: The Cubs have a lack of credible leadership because nobody over there thinks Cubs fans can handle the truth, or maybe nobody over there even knows what the truth is.

Whatever, someone needs to tell the Fanboy Owner it’s OK to be angry about this embarrassment. It’s OK to demand more publicly. It’s OK to say this:

“I’m not at all happy with our team. I know we’ve had injuries, but so have other teams, and they have been able to find help at the minor-league level. This kind of record is not acceptable. This kind of play is not acceptable. This kind of performance by an organization is not acceptable. Everybody’s a professional here. Everybody’s on notice. Nobody’s job is safe. Nobody’s job SHOULD be safe when you look at how badly we’ve performed. I’m taking names and numbers and I will change whatever I need to change to make the Cubs a winner.’’